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Blog readers, know your cash value

Those of us who blog about BC provincial politics know that our sites are monitored every day by nameless people in Victoria, using government Internet domains. It is politely called media monitoring although you won’t find that term among the objectives stated in the Ministry’s Service Plan for PAB, the Public Affairs Bureau.

They take media monitoring seriously in Victoria. The task was managed in the last fiscal year by Rishi Sharma ($84,759) and Pavan Bajwa ($79,691). Reading 2009 public accounts, I counted 18 media relations people at PAB, order-in-council appointees (politicos) involved at total salary costs of more than $1 million. The typical salary of media monitoring officers is about $5,000 a month.

OK, blog followers, now you know how much your reading is worth. To monetize your efforts at the right price, demand $5,000 a month for reading the news. One other thing, you are expected to write the occasional snarky response when someone dares criticize Dear Leader and his followers.

Grant, I saw Colonic inducing not so Handsome on the Glow Ball Snooze at Noon today, and I swear he looks so miserable I would think it hurts just to BE him! The very idea of having to keep company with the White Haired Prevaricating Adulterer sounds worse than life in the Gulag!

And on the topic of your post Norm, monetization – I see you have google ads, do you get paid by google by the page views or do visitors have to click thru the link to generate revenue to you?

My point being, and I've wondered about this before (don't know why I don't just check it out)that PABlum Brigade types wouldn't click thru (unless you can request links to porn perhaps), being too busy monitoring and being trolls on the comment boards, but if just viewing the page (and thus the ads) makes a penny or a nickel to the blogger/webmaster, then perhaps I could retire in style, just from my BC Systems, various Health Authorities, Legislature network, Victoria Public Library, BC Rail/CN affiliated law firms, RCMP and other visitors worried about covering their ass over their dirty dealings with the Campbell Regime.

BTW Koot, I hope you watch Glowball's news by first prerecording. You can condense a 60 minute broadcast into less than 4 minutes unless you need sports highlights, the weather told you five times and the latest information from a dog wrangler, cook, dietitian or one of those faux-experts that handle other subjects.

We just upgraded to Telus Optik and the PVR is the single best gadget we've ever used. There is much good stuff in the digital channels and public TV and now we can watch what we want when we want it.

We've put up with substandard Telus TV for over three years just to avoid further enriching the Shaw family. Finally Telus has got it right with Optik.

I think only click-throughs count but who knows. It would be less complicated to determine Patrick Kinsella's investment portfolio than to figure out payouts of Google ads.

All but a few blogs count readership in the thousands and tens of thousand each month. None of those are earning more than pocket change. The smarter writers use their own demain and sell advertising to people that want to target particular audiences.

I might change if I could figure out which advertisers aim to target grumpy old guys and gals.

Actually, it is click-throughs that trigger earnings and I think it further depends on how deeply you drill down in the advertiser's site. However, Google does not allow bloggers to encourage readers to do anything they would not normally do. I'm sure their system would recognize non-random clicks and boot out anyone who is trying to inflate earnings.

Generally bloggers don't pay any attention to it because, if we were doing this hoping to earn money, we'd be disappointed. What the advertising does do though is repay Google for the data storage and handling and Google this year has done improvements of the blogger software. So, I appreciate the arrangement as it is.

I appreciate your regular visits and contributions through comments. If we can encourage a few more people to demand higher standards from politicians and media members, the purpose of this blog is served.

Koot, I also thought the same thing about our 'can't handle finances' Hansen. He must no longer know what is truth or not, looking so damn tired he is ready to fall over and take a spell in hospital. Or a morgue.

Campbell must be sucking the life out of his puppets faster now than ever before.

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